The present invention relates to electrical connector housings.
It is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,213 for an electrical connector housing of electrically insulating material to have a passageway extending between opposed faces of the connector housing for receiving an electrical contact. A stiffly flexible locking lance extends into the passageway from one wall of the passageway which lance locks the electrical connector in the passageway. The lance is moulded integrally with the connector housing.
The mould tool required for producing a connector housing having a passageway extending between opposed faces and a locking lance extending from one wall of the passageway can be complicated and expensive to manufacure. This particular difficulty is accentuated where the electrical connector housing is intended to house a plurality of electrical contacts each in an individual passage-way and locked in the passageway by an individual locking lance.
According to the present invention, an electrical connector housing for a plurality of electrical contacts is chacterised by first and second housing parts of electrically insulated material and a strip carrying a plurality of locking lances. Each housing part includes cooperating means for latching the first and second housing parts together and each housing part has a row of spaced, parallel passageways. The passageways of the housing parts are aligned to define a row of cavities extending between opposed faces of the connector housing for receiving electrical contacts. The strip is assembled in the first housing part so that an individual locking lance extends into each cavity defined by the passageways of the first and second housing parts for resiliently engaging an electrical contact when received in the cavity.
Since the locking lances and the strip are manufactured separately of the housing parts, the mould tools required for the housing part are simple in construction. Furthermore, the strip and locking lances are easily assembled to the first housing part and require no special skills on the part of an assembler.
In a preferred embodiment, the strip and the locking lances are moulded as an integral one-piece item. In electrical connector housings where many electrical contacts are received in rows and columns of cavities the provision of locking lances carried by strips each strip being associated with a row, simplifies mould design with consequence economic advantages.